Analysis: Spot of Californian dreaming as FM puts over his message

By GILLIAN GLOVER
Published on 21/06/2012 02:25

IF “there are few more impressive sights in the world than a Scotsman on the make” as JM Barrie insisted, the citizens of San Francisco should have been well impressed yesterday as Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond cantered into town in a dust-cloud of bonhomie, big smiles and Hollywood-size promises.

The last seemed only fair as he was fresh from the Los Angeles’ premiere of Brave, a film he said had a heartening, vital message for all (Though,sadly, he omitted to tell me what that was.).

His own message to the packed and vividly-kilted audience at California’s Commonwealth Club was perhaps a little more routine in its scope. A proper politician’s cocktail of soft soap self-congratulation and repeated reminders that everything really important, from steam trains to TV and antibiotics, was invented by a Scot. While Mr Salmond strove to characterise the essence of Scottishness, and its global importance, San Francisco had quietly presented a perfect tableau of some crucial aspects about the essence of California. And not many of them would remind you of a Wednesday in Rutherglen.First, there was the weather – a perfect low-70s with blue skies and blazing sun. Then the, er, excitement. Freely available to the general public – I got my share en route to Safeway in Potrero Hill just a few hours before the First Minister’s arrival. “Hit the ground” was yesterday’s. And just a few footsteps away from me, a young man did just that. Wisely, as the cop shouting the instructions was pointing an automatic weapon.

Of course, poor Mr Salmond probably didn’t have time to familiarise himself with these local customs. He’s been busy writing letters – 70 of them, he said, “to Californian companies to tell them how they could benefit from Scottish expertise. Sitting there, listening, I have to say I didn’t quite recognise Scotland, everything sounded so rosy. But every ointment has its fly, and Scotland’s is, (just whisper it) the union. He didn’t actually name the giant insect. What he said was “We are recovering from the global recession with one hand tied behind our backs... Scotland has had a better time through the recession than the UK as a whole.” Thus does “independence appear more and more like Scotland’s natural state”, at least to Mr Salmond. Innovative, high-tec, and dare I say it, wind-powered. Looking for American patronage and American money, as usual. Nothing that Rabbie Burns or JM Barrie could fail to recognise.